088a.

Veduta del Giardino Farnese

The Villa Chigi was built in 1510 by Peruzzi and decorated by Raphael for the powerful Sienese banker Agostini Chigi. The suburban villa passed to the Farnese family in 1590 and was christened Villa Farnesina (1). When it was built, this area along the river was outside the walls. Only in the 1620s, with the building of the Baroque walls along the Janiculum hill by Urban VIII, did the villa become part of the city. The Farnese planned to build a bridge across the river at this point so as to link the villa with Palazzo Farnese, Plate 88, a project which was never put into effect. The U-shaped plan of the main building influenced the much larger Palazzo Barberini, Plate 36, in the following century. The subsidiary residences to the left (2) and to the lower right (4) give an idea of the extent of the gardens surrounding the villa. A large slice of these gardens was sacrificed when the river was widened for the building of the river walls in the late 19th century (the satellite image reveals the dramatic change). Vasi rather confusingly uses the number 4 to mark another Farnese property on the hill at the top left. This is the Giardino Farnese (4) Plate 198A, on the Janiculum hill. The long facade in the middle ground belongs to Palazzo Corsini (3) Plate 72. It faces onto the Via della Lungara (NN 1208), which separates it from the Villa Chigi/Farnese.